Present approaches to interfacing resources (e.g., printers) to a cloud include iCloud® available from Apple, Inc., and Google® Cloud Print available from Google, Inc. However, these solutions are limited both by being manual and being vendor-specific (i.e., dedicated to the cloud of a particular vendor).
Current technological trends include cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile computing, and AppStore-type services, more broadly known as product markets. The inventors believe that these trends are heading towards a convergence point. Mobile computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) already have some synergy, to the extent that mobile devices are IoT-enabled and make some use of cloud computing. However, neither mobile devices nor IoT devices are equivalent to cloud computing resources. As cloud computing evolves towards an AppStore-type of marketplace, so should mobile and IoT devices.